Steven Soderbergh is finally quitting Hollywood, but not without one last parting shot at the system which has left the Oscar-winning director no longer interested in making movies.

Soderbergh's long goodbye has been playing out for at least three years, and he has been nothing if not prolific during that period, with six films since 2011. Now, in what appears to be his definitive retirement interview, the film-maker behind Traffic, Magic Mike and the Ocean's Eleven series has accused Hollywood of treating directors in an increasingly "absolutely horrible" fashion over the past two decades.

"The worst development in film-making – particularly in the last five years – is how badly directors are treated," Soderbergh told New York magazine. "It's become absolutely horrible the way the people with the money decide they can fart in the kitchen, to put it bluntly. It's not just studios – it's who is financing a film. I guess I don't understand the assumption that the director is presumptively wrong about what the audience wants or needs when they are the first audience, in a way. And probably got into making movies because of being in that audience."

Soderbergh, 50, lamented the disappearance of an era – presumably the early-to-mid 1970s – in which film-makers were allowed more freedom, and said intelligent viewers had spotted the trend and shifted to watching TV. "It's true that when I was growing up, there was a sort of division: respect was accorded to people who made great movies and to people who made movies that made a lot of money," he said. "And that division just doesn't exist any more: now it's just the people who make a lot of money.

"I think there are many reasons for that," he added. "Some of them are cultural. I've said before, I think that the audience for the kinds of movies I grew up liking has migrated to television. The format really allows for the narrow and deep approach that I like. Three and a half million people watching a show on cable is a success. That many people seeing a movie is not a success. I just don't think movies matter as much any more, culturally."

Soderbergh also confirmed during the interview that the forthcoming psychological thriller Side Effects, starring Channing Tatum, Rooney Mara, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Jude Law, would be his last theatrical feature film. He also has the HBO biopic Behind the Candelabra, starring Michael Douglas and Matt Damon as Liberace and his young lover Scott Thorson, due to air on US pay-TV. Soderbergh caused consternation earlier this month when he revealed that Hollywood studios refused to fund the latter film over concerns that it might be "too gay" for audiences.

Side Effects, which is out on 8 February in the US and 15 March in the UK, centres on a young woman (Mara) suffering from anxiety who has an unexpected reaction to a new drug prescribed by her psychiatrist.